


A Serious Mistake

by WordCollector



Series: Disconnected [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-27
Updated: 2015-02-27
Packaged: 2018-03-15 10:22:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3443633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WordCollector/pseuds/WordCollector
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This was a mistake. A terrible miscalculation. </p><p>The Asset was a tool, a weapon, useful and smart. He made good decisions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Serious Mistake

This was a mistake. A terrible miscalculation. 

The Asset was a tool, a weapon, useful and smart. He made good decisions. Deadly decisions that required discretion, then reported back to his superiors. He just needed to know who to report to. That would be the key.

After the mission failure, he left Steve Rogers on the bank alive. He had assessed his own injuries, and determined his body would heal.

Leaving HYDRA behind, the Asset disappeared. Blending in, hiding in plain sight, he was skilled at this.

Finally, he went to the museum. This confirmed that either what Rogers said was true, or an elaborate lie. 

For a week he tried to figure out why they would lie. What would they gain? Why would they put up an exhibit for someone who looked just like him? He was convinced that Rogers believed this lie. He wanted to return to Rogers, but he was hospitalized, and no help to the Asset.

SHIELD Director Nick Fury had been a recent target of HYDRA. The Asset had been wiped since that mission on the D.C. streets. His later mission to kill Rogers included a brief with the bio of Director Nick Fury. They used the Asset to kill this man. HYDRA feared this man. Steve Rogers worked for this man. The Asset doubted this man was dead. If he wanted contact with Steve Rogers, he would submit to Fury. This was logical. 

This was how the chain of command works.

Finding Fury was not difficult for the Asset. If Alexander Pierce hadn’t been so arrogant and stupid, the Asset would have completed his mission and Fury would be dead. The Asset is glad HYDRA was incompetent.

The SHIELD questioning was endless. They wanted to know everything. The Asset remembered many things starting from his most recent mission. They also wanted to know from before, and those memories were patchy at best.

He knew HYDRA techniques, but few locations. He knew faces, but rarely names. He knew how to fight, but not where he fought. The SHIELD interrogators were not happy. He wanted to make them happy. Maybe then they would let Steve Rogers see him. 

Steve Rogers said he was the Asset’s friend. He was friends with James Buchanan Barnes and this used to be who the Asset was. Or is? He’s not sure how that works.

He will not ask about Steve Rogers. He is not sure why, but he is convinced that it would be a mistake. 

The Asset sits in his cell and stares at the wall. They have given him warm sweat pants and a sleeveless undershirt. The room is warm and dry, and there is a shelf to lie on. There is also fresh water in a sink, and a toilet built into the wall. They feed him regularly. He knows he has had much less in the past. 

They have figured out a way to deactivate his arm. It took them six days, then they took him into a room with a chair. When he woke, his arm was in a sling. It isn’t numb, but it doesn’t move. It just hangs there. Sometimes when he sleeps he feels a sharp pain in his shoulder and it wakes him. Most days, there is no pain. This must be part of their interrogation techniques, waiting for the pain.

Sometimes they question him for days. They change between interrogators, but do not stop. It is a technique he is familiar with. Unpleasant, and exhausting, but no permanent harm is being done. 

Sometimes they wait days between questionings. It seems like an eternity. These spans never bothered him before. But, now he has questions. He can not ask them. It is like an itch when he has been ordered not to move. Slowly making him crazy. But, he will not ask. That will not get him the answers he needs.

Once, they sent SHEILD operatives to pretend they were HYDRA rescuing the Asset. It was an old trick. They wanted to see where his loyalties lie. He grabbed each of the operatives with one hand and threw them into the hall. Carefully. He knew that this was a test. Harming them would also be a failure. 

Another time, the interrogator insinuated he could help the Asset get back to HYDRA. He also knew this was a trick. Even if it wasn’t a trick, it wasn’t what the Asset wanted. 

Time passes strangely. Slowly. He bites his nails down and uses them like a calendar. He knows how long it takes for them to grow back. He can’t actually remember learning this skill, but he knows there was a time he was kept in a cage for a really long time. He can’t remember the cage, but he knows that this one is much nicer. Sometimes, he just knows things. 

It has been months. He sits in his cage for many days between questionings. They have all of the useful information he can remember. Much of the old information has been burned out of him. He remembers the smell of flesh burning, the pain. They burn out the old memories, but create a new memory of burning. It is branded into his flesh.

Steve Rogers has never come. He has stopped waiting. In the beginning he was convinced Steve Rogers would come. He would call the Asset ‘Bucky’  
again. It would be nice to have a name, he thought. The Asset wonders if he had killed him on the helicarrier. Maybe Rogers died of his injuries. 

The Asset wonders what would be worse, if Rogers died, or if he lied. Maybe, the Asset isn’t Barnes. He tries not to think of what it would mean if it was all a lie. Still, sometimes it keeps him from sleeping. When he tries to sleep he worries about Rogers too. He tries not to think about how he looked on the riverbank. Every time he sleeps he dreams about it.

One day, the door opens and Director Fury is there. The Asset has not seen the Director since the first week. He feels cold. 

Nick Fury stands in the room and looks at the Asset. The Asset stands at parade rest when SHIELD agents enter. For Fury, he comes to attention. The Asset has his eyes forward, staring at the wall in front of him, unmoving. 

It is a while before Fury says anything. 

“Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes, we are turning you over to U.S. Army custody. You are going to be tried as a traitor to your country.” 

The word traitor makes him feel strange and hot. His neck turns red, but he does not move. Not even a blink to acknowledge the words. Fury stares at the man in front of him, looking him over for a few minutes then leaves. 

The Asset does not move for hours after the Director leaves. He isn’t sure if this is another test. He remains at attention. The Asset is a weapon. The Director should find him useful. The information he was not able to provide should have been irrelevant to his value. 

His chest starts to hurt when the Director leaves. He does not move. He feels lightheaded. The room tilts and shifts, but he keeps his breathing steady. He does not move. He is a weapon. 

Steve Rogers did not come. It is all he can think. He tries to go blank, feel nothing, but his thoughts keep coming back to that one thing. Steve Rogers did not come. 

Eventually, he sits on the floor and stares at the wall. 

This was a mistake. A terrible miscalculation. 

The Asset was a tool, a weapon, useful and smart. He made good decisions. 

But, …Steve Rogers did not come.


End file.
